A/59/329 is illustrated, inter alia, by the deplorable situation of crayfish fishers, who suffer cerebral and physical injuries owing to the frantic pace of underwater dives imposed by the boat owners and receive no social or medical assistance, particularly in the city of Puerto Lempira. On the Caribbean coast, the Garifuna people, who have maintained a strong cultural identity, believe that they have been kept on the margins of Honduran society and fear that they will eventually lose their language because of the shortage of bilingual programmes and control of their ancestral lands by tourism development interests that do not respect their rights and cultural identity. Indigenous peoples also suffer from the inadequacy of government efforts to provide bilingual education. 21. The Honduran Government is beginning to grasp the seriousness of the situation of indigenous and Garifuna peoples while failing to recognize the reality and cultural depth of racism and racial and ethnic discrimination. The limited number of complaints of racism, put forward as an indicator of the absence of discrimination, should rather be seen as a sign that racism is a feature of life and that victims are unaware of their rights and, in particular, of the penalties for racist acts, owing to the Government’s silence. An economic, social and political profile of these peoples has been developed recently with the support of the World Bank and should, in the opinion of the Special Rapporteur, help to meet their needs. He recommended that the Government should make a firmer commitment to combating racial discrimination, particularly by developing a plan of action, and that it should place greater value on the country’s ethnic diversity in order to build a genuinely multicultural and egalitarian society. He also proposed that effective measures should be taken to counter the most visible effects of racial discrimination in the areas of education, health and housing. The employers of stricken crayfish fishers should make arrangements to compensate them and persons employed in this industry should be better protected. The International Labour Organization (ILO) should pay more attention to the right of Honduran crayfish fishers to organize unions. It is also necessary to conduct a broad campaign against racial discrimination and raise awareness among victims of the recourse open to them. 22. In Nicaragua, as in Honduras, the Government considered that there was neither racism nor racial discrimination in the country. The complex ethnic and racial make-up of the population resulting from intermarriage would make manifestations of those phenomena improbable. By contrast, the representatives of indigenous peoples and people of African descent consider themselves victims of racism and racial discrimination. The historical discrimination that these peoples have endured has been reinforced by the political violence that the country has suffered and, in particular, by the political, social and military manipulation of these peoples by all factions in the internal conflict in Nicaragua. Their grievances stem, inter alia, from the infringement of their cultural identities and land rights and the low level of investment by the State in regions where they live, as well as their insignificant representation in power structures. The Special Rapporteur found a deep ethnic, social and economic rift between the Pacific and Atlantic regions. The Pacific regions remain predominantly mestizo — with some indigenous communities — and are experiencing a measure of development, whereas the Atlantic regions, inhabited mostly by indigenous peoples and people of African descent, are isolated and lack basic infrastructure. As in Guatemala and Honduras, the map of poverty and economic and social marginalization coincides with the geographic distribution of peoples who consider themselves to be victims of 12